…that Sgt. Pepper taught the band to play: Actually, the Venezuelan people didn’t need no stinkin’ band. They rescued their president from a US-backed coup attempt with no outside help whatsoever, and with him, their democracy. The State Dept. would rather you forgot all about that, no doubt. But I’m not about to do that, ...

Film at 11. Meanwhile, the story: Last Friday, the Washington Post highlighted a global happiness survey released last year by the polling firm Gallup, which found that Venezuela is the fifth happiest country in the world. According to the poll, 64 percent of Venezuelan respondents said their well-being was thriving. The poll measured how people ...

René González, a Cuban anti-terror agent (and one of the famous Cuban Five, imprisoned in the US on espionage charges) gets a supervised leave of absence to visit his sick brother back home. As you can see in the video, it was a time for happy tears. It won’t be a permanent stay, unfortunately, since ...

Via Cubadebate’s Facebook page, some fresh photos that came in just now: Now, who might that healthy, hearty-looking guy be? Surely not the same walking corpse that the lamestream media, on the orders of a crapaganda-peddling putschist private “intelligence” (ha!) outfit known as STRATFOR, have been writing off for dead already? Oh yeah, and he ...

Sigh. What’s a girl to do when she’s looking for Latin American lefty-porn to give her readers their Friday fix of progressive pulchritude? All the news is full of Chavecito and his maybe-recurred cancer (or maybe-just-scar-tissue, did-THAT-ever-occur-to-you-crapaganda-whores?). And we all know what naughtiness Evo has been up to lately (yawwwwwwwwwwwn). So what else is there ...

Remember this picture? The lamestream media up here don’t want you to. According to them, this silly poser, who pretended to be a Communist while in China for the Beijing Olympics, is The Man Who Will Beat Hugo Chávez, assuming that the allegedly rampant anti-semitism in Venezuela doesn’t make him the victim of a one-man ...

This might also come in handy for the Harper Government™ hacks and apologists lurking here, seeing as you’re all trying to turn us into Yanks Lite with your dirty, smear-mongering politics. BTW, if you want to know where to start for Venezuela, it’s on the LEFT. Pay attention and memorize this, because you never know ...

And gives the right-wing candidate and sham primary victor, Henrique Capriles Radonsky, notice that he’s got to stand and deliver, or leave with his tail between his legs: Here’s the gist of what he said. Accept no lamestream substitutes. And remember that word majunche (it means “little wimp”, more or less), you’re gonna be hearing ...

Looks like Simón Bolívar will have even more company in orbit. In addition to his Bolivian and Ecuadorian counterparts, he’s going to be joined by another Venezuelan satellite, named after another independence hero: The new satellite, “Generalísimo Francisco de Miranda”, represents a great leap for the development of technological independence in Venezuela, said president Hugo ...

It’s 13 years now since Chavecito was sworn in as president of Venezuela. And, contrary to all the right-wing lamestream media naysayers up here, he’s not dead yet, and neither is Venezuelan democracy, which is going stronger than ever. And of course, that was the plan 13 years ago yesterday, when Chavecito swore on the ...

Ahem. Make that two and a HALF million… And now, the story from Aporrea: At 10:06 this morning, and three months shy of his second anniversary on Twitter, President Hugo Chávez made history as the most-followed head of state on the social network, with two and a half million followers. 1394 tweets, following 21 tweeters, ...

Ahem. A little mood music, maestro: Ah, that was lovely. And a timely reminder of the class of person we’re dealing with here: an unelected monarch who dares to try to shut up a democratically elected leader confronting him over Spanish support of a coup against democracy in Venezuela. Yes, that was Chavecito, and yes, ...

And here he is, proving that his health is fully recovered from last year’s nasty cancer scare: …and that he’s fit and ready for his re-election campaign. He looks and sounds it, all right. Nice to see he’s regained the weight he lost during treatment. He’s his usual burly self, not painfully thin, the way ...

The clearest, most concise explanation yet of why the Keystone XL pipeline project, which would ferry dirty tar-sands oil from Alberta to Texas, must not proceed. Yes, all this talk of “ending our dependence on foreign oil” is a LIE. Shocking? Wait, it gets worse. The pipeline would also threaten a geologically unstable area that ...

Good news from Venezuela… The Venezuelan president, Hugo Chávez, will return on Sunday with his well-known TV program, Aló Presidente, which has been on hiatus for seven months. This will be the first show since Chávez recovered from the cancer that was diagnosed in June, said a government spokesman on Wednesday. “This Sunday, Aló Presidente ...

Well, who’d of thunk it? Looks like the capital of Colombia has a cool new (progressive) mayor! Gustavo Petro was sworn in as mayor of Bogotá and presented his plan for the city for the coming years. He explained that his decree prohibiting the bearing of arms will be permanent. “We will not prohibit the ...

Dear lord, what is it with progressive LatAm leaders getting the fucking C-word? First it was Dilma, then Lugo, then Chavecito, then Lula, and now Cristina? President Cristina Kirchner is suffering from a papillary cancer in the right lobe of her thyroid gland, according to an official statement from the Casa Rosada [presidential palace of ...

It’s too early to say yet whether he’ll be freed, but it looks like a certain FARC guerrilla (and folk singer) whose capture sparked a huge outcry will, at least, NOT be sent back to face the draconian justice system of his homeland: The Public Ministry has released, in writing, its opinion with respect to ...

Time, that is, for PDVSA to help capitalist people in need…and for right-wing nutters to go condemning those crazy Venezuelan commies and their insufferable social conscience: Happy Yule, and ¡¡¡VIVA CHÁVEZ!!!

Glass houses. President Barack Obama’s sharp criticisms of Venezuela’s human rights record and its ties to Iran are heightening tensions with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who on Monday responded by calling Obama a “clown” and telling him to mind his own business. Obama appeared to stiffen his stance toward Chavez in his remarks, which were ...

A Russian Dnepr RS-20 rocket like this one will carry an Ecuadorian satellite into orbit next year. Sheesh. Those crazy Latinos, whatever will they do next? First Venezuela puts Simón Bolívar into orbit, then Bolivia follows suit with Tupac Amaru. Now, Ecuador is also getting in on the Earth-orbiting business, with a tiny little titan ...

Just in time for the holidays, the latest decorations from Venezuela: Figurines of Chavecito, Simón Bolívar and other Venezuelan historic heroes decorate a nativity scene. Of course, Reuters chose to focus first on the local Grinches who don’t like it, but they’re outnumbered, as usual. And for those who think he has no place in ...

Riddle me this: When is a Trending Topic NOT a trending topic? Courtesy of Patria Grande, here comes a wake-up call for all you internauts who love Venezuela, and who want to keep abreast of all the dirty tricks of empire: Today, the Trending Topics of Twitter woke to the hashtag #QEPDHugoChávez (#RIPHugoChavez). This phenomenon ...

Don’t expect to read anything good about this in your lamestream English media. And don’t expect to see these pictures, either: Citizens of Caracas hold up a banner thanking President Chávez for bringing home the gold in the name of their sovereignty. A welcoming crowd lines the streets of Caracas as the armored trucks carrying ...